Comparing CAT12 and VBM8 for Detecting Brain Morphological Abnormalities in Temporal Lobe Epilepsy

Area of Science:

• Neuroimaging
• Neurology
• Medical image analysis

Background:

• Brain morphological alterations are key to understanding neurodegenerative/neurological diseases.
• Automated software aids in detecting brain changes in structural MRI.
• Voxel-based morphometry (VBM) is a method for detecting brain volumetric abnormalities.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare the accuracy of VBM analysis using CAT12 (SPM12) versus VBM8 (SPM8) for detecting gray matter (GM) and white matter (WM) abnormalities.
• To evaluate the performance of CAT12 and VBM8 in adult temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) patients with and without hippocampus sclerosis (HS).

Main Methods:

• Voxel-based morphometry (VBM) analysis was performed using CAT12 (SPM12) and VBM8 (SPM8).
• The study included adult TLE patients with (n=51) and without (n=57) HS, and healthy controls (n=28).
• Structural MRI data was analyzed to compare GM and WM alterations between the two VBM methods and patient groups.

Main Results:

• CAT12 identified significant GM and WM reductions in ipsilateral mesial temporal lobes in TLE-HS patients, and slight GM amygdala swelling in TLE-no patients.
• VBM8 detected significant GM and WM reductions only in left TLE-HS patients.
• CAT12 analysis revealed more extensive and accurate volumetric alterations compared to VBM8.

Conclusions:

• VBM analysis using CAT12 provides a more accurate and robust volumetric analysis of brain regions in TLE compared to the VBM8 toolbox.
• CAT12 demonstrates superior sensitivity in detecting GM and WM alterations in TLE patients.
• These findings highlight CAT12 as a more effective tool for studying brain morphology in neurological conditions.